


Movement: Immer

by Iristedeu



Series: Movement [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Bard Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Elezen Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Fluff, I don't know why i feel obliged to add those but hey someone might be looking, Implied Sexual Content, Love Confessions, M/M, Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Mild Sexual Content, mentioned alphinaud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24365953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iristedeu/pseuds/Iristedeu
Summary: After slaying Nidhogg and putting a halt to the Dravanian Horde, all Alvaar wants to do is go to sleep. The grand reveals can wait for morning so he can rest right?Matters of the heart, however, seldom find cause to wait. And Alvaar has always made exception for Haurchefant…
Relationships: Haurchefant Greystone/Warrior of Light
Series: Movement [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1744579
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	Movement: Immer

**Author's Note:**

> Time Frame: Heavensward. Spoilers accordingly.
> 
> Notes: Mild NSFW. Been something of a struggle figuring out what to post next, but I figure the pieces I have from Heavensward help to set the stage for Alvaar’s quirks more than most. Enjoy the fluff because it’s only setting up for one hell of a hurt…
> 
> Also, shoutout to the lovely people that have been reading, leaving kudos, and writing comments. I love the ever loving heck out of you and you make this effort worth it. Seriously, every time I see people have been enjoying my work it makes me smile like an idiot. You all the best, and you're my hero, so you stay beautiful and know Bard Mom loves you.

It had taken a single glance at Alphinaud for both Arcanist and Bard to silently resolve the long story of Ishgard’s real past for the morning. After a long journey and walking into a brewing battle, Alvaar was more than happy to save any major cultural identity reveals for the morning. If they were about to shake the foundation of Ishgardian lives, reveal that the origins of this war were a lie and thousands of lives had been lost maintaining it and holding that false sense of who was noble and who was common...

They could really all be better rested for that. It wouldn’t ever be enough but even he’d found it a hefty pill to swallow and it wasn’t his country and war. Anything was better than nothing after a near miss civil war.

He left Alphinaud in charge of the details of meeting arrangements, promising to meet with him first thing in the morning. He’d slain the power piece of the Dravanian Horde, it was time for the youth to sweep in and handle the political details that he was best with. Besides, right now he just wanted to sink into bed and sleep until he was forcibly dragged from it.

Or at least, that had been the start of a plan until he noticed Haurchefant falling in after him as he made for his loaned room in the Fortemps Manor. It made a small smile tug at his lips.

“Going to follow me even if I loop all of Ishgard?” he teased, halting his steps to turn and face the Lord as he struck a cocky pose in the hallway.

“I would gladly join you on a brisk five laps about the city my friend, but somehow I doubt you’d find it as refreshing as I,” Haurchefant returned with his usual bright smile. “But I...” he paused in contemplation a moment, making the Bard twitch an ear in confusion before the Knight quickly stepped up beside him.

With a startled squeak, Alvaar’s hands were scrambling at the man’s mailed arms as he was lifted and spun in a few disorienting circles as the Lord laughed. “Alvaar you’ve done it! In a thousand years none have ever come close to slaying Nidhogg but I knew you would succeed my friend! I knew you could do it, there is no one so capable of the impossible as you! You’ll have songs and stories of your heroism for ages to come!”

Surprising even himself, Alvaar was laughing too by the time he was set on his feet, shutting his eyes as Haurchefant cradled his face in toughened hands and pressed a kiss to his brow. Nudging his nose against the Lord’s he quickly wrapped his arms around strong shoulders and leaned into him as they shared a soft lingering kiss.

“I don’t need my name in history books as long as I’ve got your fanfare welcoming me back,” he murmured with a soft smile, content to cuddle the Knight in comfortable silence. Or at least until Haurchefant noted the lingering chill still on his skin before scooping him up in his arms and spiriting him away. It wouldn’t do to let an ‘Esteemed Guest and Resident Hero of the Realm’ stay cold after all.

-

While Alvaar might have meant to retire early and get some well-deserved rest, it was quickly cast aside once Haurchefant had carried him to his room and locked the door behind them. From there it was all a comfortable sort of routine as they steadily disrobed, lingering touches and kisses dragging everything out with a more sensual air than the usual.

Alvaar didn’t mind it at all.

He could feel the worry and concern Haurchefant must have felt as he waited for the Warrior of Light to return. Even for being raised among nobility, the Knight was hardly subtle. Where his usual enthusiasm would have the Bard practically torn from his clothes and quickly laid out on the sheets to conquer without mercy, tonight was something else. Tempered wholly with gentle affection and attention so thorough and patient it bordered on worship.

Of the many, many times they had tangled in the sheets over the last several months, it was perhaps one of a handful he would have hesitated to just call sex. No, that word was too simple. Too generic for the feelings within the act.

It didn’t touch on the way his heart warmed as calloused fingers explored the lines of his face, tenderly tracing each curve and line as though the Knight wanted to commit him to memory. How peaceful he felt wrapped up in the man’s warmth and presence, legs locked about Haurchefant’s hips as they both lingered on that initial joining and the feeling of completeness it brought. The selfish sort of pride in his chest as he felt Haurchefant shudder at that too light scratch of nails through his hair and hot mouth against his ear.

Sex just wouldn’t ever do justice to what felt like two souls desperately trying to reach each other whatever way they could while bound so tightly in mortal flesh.

And holding the Knight in his arms afterwards, feeling the gentle warm breaths against his neck between contented nuzzles and kisses, he knew precisely what it was. The calm revelation of something you’d known deep down all along. Words that he had, through some miracle, been too much of a romantic to ever use lightly.

He wouldn’t have said them during, when it could be lost in the moment or set aside as something thoughtlessly said in passion. No, that wasn’t how he was. That wasn’t the sort of tossed out promise he wanted to keep.

Stroking silver hair gently he ducked his chin to press a faint kiss to Haurchefant’s brow before hugging him the faintest bit tighter.

“I love you.”

He could almost think the man hadn’t heard him if not for how still his lover became and the way his breathing stopped briefly. Alvaar might have gotten concerned if he hadn’t somehow been expecting it, letting the Lord shift back to push himself up on his elbows and stare in dumbfounded surprise at the Bard.

In the last month it was the unspoken feeling between them in a hundred different looks and touches and thoughts. The word neither wanted to use because it somehow didn’t seem right, or just seemed like asking too much. So much had happened so soon, great favors requested and received between their factions. And while both knew they were completely separate of their relationship, that they would have helped one another regardless, it still weighed on it.

And they were both men of duty and service, each pulled on a different path. Each sworn fervent to their cause.

Love wasn’t a word meant to be said during a war when you couldn’t promise forever. Or at least, not for Alvaar.

But Nidhogg was dead, and the Dragonsong War could finally start to be put to an end after a millennia of fighting and dying. And the gentle hand that brushed the Lords cheek and accompanied that tender smile so few had seen on Alvaar’s face said differently. Whispered of a hope and possibility for things to be better than either had known.

If the ending of a 1000-year war was possible then why not this too?

A faint gasp was quickly crushed between them as Haurchefant again cupped his face between those hands and kissed him passionately. Once, then twice, and then both lost track in a tangle of limbs and lips. Lost in that quiet search of whatever could possibly mean _enough_ when all of you yearned for someone.

But lying side by side, wrapped up in each other’s arms, the Lord nuzzled a long ear gently with a whisper and Alvaar found it.

“I love you _desperately._ ”

Gods... he would have done the whole blasted journey over again, fought three of that damned dragon if it would let him linger in comfort like this the rest of his days. Brushing his thumb over the Lords high sculpted cheek to wipe away a few tears, the Bard pressed a faint kiss to that stubborn nose and another to his brow before bumping their foreheads together and settling close. He didn’t think his heart had ever felt so light as it fluttered like a bird in his chest.

“Alvaar...” Haurchefant began hesitantly, voice rather soft and a little bit lost as his fingers dug into the archer’s waist a bit more. It was unusually reserved for him, making the Bard pet his cheek again patiently.

“Yes?” Smoothing platinum strands back behind a long ear he waited with a non-committal air.

“I... please...” he started, something quiet and aching and so vulnerable in that usually chipper voice. “Again?”

If Alvaar hadn’t already known about Haurchefant’s past, the difficult and painful life he’d had in Ishgard, he wouldn’t have been able to understand. But in that comfortable air they’d found between them the last few months he knew. Pain knew pain when it recognized a similar suffering. And for all the seeming differences between them, they had silently bonded over and understood what made them alike. The hidden parts of a person that no one got to see. Where that bitter anger and hurt and loneliness was still stuck deep in the heart like a thorn. The buried feelings that came screaming back to the surface with vicious fury in battle and let them both charge recklessly forward in duty and service for things beyond them.

He knew this request. This fragile question from a timid heart that wanted this sort of promise so desperately but was terrified of it being taken away or made light of. The ache for love that gnawed in a heart when it had known precious little of it...

“I love you,” Alvaar reaffirmed again. No less patient, no less heartfelt than the first.

Reaching up to grip the Bards wrist carefully, Haurchefant leaned into that contact a bit more, shutting his eyes and ears pricked faintly to listen. “Once more?”

There was a small tender smile wrapped around the words as Alvaar repeated them again, and again, and again. He’d say them a thousand times if the Knight asked. But if the man needed a bit more help believing it... well, perhaps it would be okay to flower it up a little more. He did have ages of memories of the Bards that walked before him hung around his neck after all...

“I love you, Haurchefant Greystone. And whatever happens in the coming days, whatever greets us tomorrow, that won’t differ. I pick you. A hundred times over I’d pick you, just as you are. Free of title and position and everything else. Hang it all up and my feelings won’t change. I love you and I’m yours,” he whispered. Quiet but firm, he didn’t need to convince the world when the only opinion that mattered was right beside him.

A soft but indescribably happy laugh made its way out through the Knights tears. “I... I’m sorry my dear I shouldn’t be crying but I... blast it all, I should have known better than to love a Bard I’ll never match words like that,” he joked with a brilliant smile before gripping Alvaar’s face and kissing him again.

“I don’t need poetry,” Alvaar whispered between kisses. “I don’t need stories... songs... or glory... I just want you... and everything you are. That will ever be enough for me.”

“You’re too much for words Alvaar,” the Lord murmured, smile felt against the Bards skin in a multitude of soft kisses peppering his face.

“You’re too much for song Haurchefant. But damnit I’ll try anyway... I’ll write you songs and ballads, I’ll sing your praises the world over if it will make you believe me. I’ve got verse enough for us both. I don’t need poetry to know how you feel, I’ll get it in deed and action every time and you’ve a whole lot of actions I love. But if you really must, I only need three words from you,” he sighed as the Knight gentled him with touch and kiss.

“Get in bed?” Haurchefant remarked after a moment.

“... okay six.”

“Clothes off now?”

“.... nine.”

“Hold on tight?”

“Be still my heart, and you said you’re not a fucking poet...” Alvaar murmured, a lazy grin tugging at his face and chuckling at the quick press of lips to his.

“Think of what I could do with four,” the Lord teased, giving a soft laugh that warmed the Bards heart to his core. He was more than happy to leave words for later with the Lord shifting over him and settling so comfortably between his thighs. And he was plenty content to accept love in touch and quiet action, to let Haurchefant slowly sear it on his soul with each caress and kiss and thrust. Whatever artistry he had with word just never felt enough to capture what the Knight could with body as he gently took him apart. Left him a shuddering and mewling mess, heart almost painfully full with the depth of that emotion he needed in action more than word.

When all the world would lie to him with a bright smile, he trusted the action of this man over all else.

Trusted the feelings left behind in each touch to his face or kiss or...

“I love you Alvaar,” Haurchefant whispered against his ear as he still lay panting for breath.

_Oh._

He really could do amazing things with four words instead of three...

**Author's Note:**

> Immer: Always


End file.
